Victoria Analía Donda Pérez (born 1977 in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
,
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
) is an Argentine
human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
activist and
legislator
A legislator (also known as a deputy or lawmaker) is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people of the state. Legislatures may be supra-national (for ex ...
. She is the first daughter of a "
disappeared
An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiza ...
" person, born in captivity, to become a member of the
Argentine National Congress
The Congress of the Argentine Nation ( es, Congreso de la Nación Argentina) is the legislative branch of the government of Argentina. Its composition is bicameral, constituted by a 72-seat Senate and a 257-seat Chamber of Deputies. The Senate ...
. She was the youngest woman to hold that office.
From 2019 to 2022, she was the agency executive of the
(INADI), one of the Argentine government's prime human rights institutions.
Early life
She was born in 1977, in the notorious
clandestine detention center called
ESMA in Buenos Aires while her mother, María Hilda Pérez was "
disappeared
An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiza ...
" for her involvement with
leftist
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
groups. Her father, José María Laureano Donda, was also held in captivity during the same time. Both remain disappeared and are presumed to have been killed during that period. She is one of approximately 500 children known to have been born to disappeared
political prisoner
A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention.
There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...
s during Argentina's
Dirty War
The Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina ( es, dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina, links=no) for the period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 a ...
(1976–1983), who were kidnapped and registered under false identities.
As a baby, Victoria was handed over to another family, who raised her but never told her about her biological parents. Her case is particularly unusual because her paternal uncle, Adolfo Miguel Donda Tigel (her father's brother), was a
naval
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...
officer who was one of the primary individuals responsible for ESMA, and participated in the imprisonment, torture, and killing of her parents.
Recovery of her identity
In 2003, when she was 26 years of age, Victoria Donda discovered her true identity after communicating with the group
H.I.J.O.S.
HIJOS is an acronym for Hijos por la Identidad y la Justicia contra el Olvido y el Silencio (English: ''Sons and Daughters for Identity and Justice Against forgetfulness and Silence''). It is the name of two organizations founded by children of peo ...
(Sons and Daughters for Identity and Justice Against Oblivion and Silence) and the
Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo
The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo ( es, italic=no, Asociación Civil Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo) is a human rights organization with the goal of finding the children stolen and illegally adopted during the 1976–1983 Argentine military dicta ...
.
Despite that, even knowing that her real mother was one of the ESMA disappeared, for a long time she was reluctant to have her DNA tested in order to find out who her biological parents were.
On May 24, 2004, when ESMA was converted by the government into a memorial center, Donda spoke at the ceremony:
One week later, DNA analysis revealed Donda's true identity. She was the first "sister" found by
H.I.J.O.S.
HIJOS is an acronym for Hijos por la Identidad y la Justicia contra el Olvido y el Silencio (English: ''Sons and Daughters for Identity and Justice Against forgetfulness and Silence''). It is the name of two organizations founded by children of peo ...
and the 78th granddaughter found by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Some weeks later, her kidnapper was detained; he is currently on trial, alongside
Juan Antonio Azic
''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, ...
and others, for 62
crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
.
Political career
Before Victoria Donda knew her identity, she had already been interested in human rights and poverty issues, working for a
soup kitchen
A soup kitchen, food kitchen, or meal center, is a place where food is offered to the Hunger, hungry usually for free or sometimes at a below-market price (such as via coin donations upon visiting). Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoo ...
called "
Azucena Villaflor
Azucena Villaflor (7 April 1924 – 10 December 1977) was an Argentine activist and one of the founders of the human rights association Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which looked for ''desaparecidos'' (victims of forced disappearance during Arge ...
", name of a disappeared human rights activist and first president of
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is an Argentine human rights association formed in response to the National Reorganization Process, the military dictatorship by Jorge Rafael Videla, with the goal of finding the ''desaparecidos'', initially, an ...
. Donda became later member of the
Freemen of the South Movement
The Free of the South Movement ( es, Movimiento Libres del Sur) is a centre-left political party created in 2006 in Argentina. It is made up of the ''Movimiento Barrios de Pie'', the ''Agrupación Martín Fierro'', the ''Frente Barrial 19 de Di ...
(''Movimiento Libres del Sur'', LDS). She was part of a mob that stormed into the
Argentine Congress
The Congress of the Argentine Nation ( es, Congreso de la Nación Argentina) is the legislative branch of the government of Argentina. Its composition is bicameral, constituted by a 72-seat Senate and a 257-seat Chamber of Deputies. The Senate, ...
and vandalized it during the
December 2001 riots.
In 2006, Donda was elected a councilmember in the municipality of
Avellaneda
Avellaneda (, ) is a port city in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the seat of the Avellaneda Partido, whose population was 342,677 as per the . Avellaneda is located within the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area, and is connected ...
,
Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...
.
In
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
, she was elected to Argentina's
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...
on the
Front for Victory
The Front for Victory ( es, Frente para la Victoria, FPV) was a centre-left Peronist electoral alliance in Argentina, and is formally a faction of the Justicialist Party. Former presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner wer ...
list, representing Buenos Aires Province. The following year, she joined the
Broad Progressive Front
The Broad Progressive Front (, FAP) was a legislative, electoral and governmental coalition of center-left and leftist political parties in México. The FAP was founded after the 2006 Mexican general election following the final agreements that t ...
(FAP)'s bloc, and was re-elected in that list in
2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
. In
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
, she was the first candidate in the
Progressives
Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, techno ...
' list and was the only legislator on the list to be elected to Congress, this time representing the
Federal Capital
A federal capital is a political entity, often a municipality or capital city, that serves as the seat of the federal government. A federal capital is typically a city that physically encompasses the offices and meeting places of its respective gov ...
.
In 2019 she was selected to head the
(INADI) by President
Alberto Fernández
Alberto Ángel Fernández (; born 2 April 1959) is an Argentine politician, lawyer and professor, serving as president of Argentina since 2019.
Born in Buenos Aires, Fernández attended the University of Buenos Aires, where he earned his law ...
. She resigned from the position in December 2022, shortly before the end of her term, and was temporarily replaced by
Undersecretary of Diversity Policies Greta Pena.
Film
The documentary film ''Familia de sangre'', directed by Gustavo Bobbio and Daniel Ortiz, tells the story of Victoria Donda.
References
External links
ArticleArticle*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20100109130039/http://www.victoriadondaperez.org.ar/ Official website of Victoria Donda Pérez, national deputy of the Movimiento Libres del Sur
{{DEFAULTSORT:Donda, Victoria
1977 births
People from Buenos Aires
Argentine people of Italian descent
Argentine people of Spanish descent
Members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies elected in Buenos Aires
Members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies elected in Buenos Aires Province
Argentine human rights activists
Women human rights activists
Living people
Women members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies
Freemen of the South Movement politicians
Children of people disappeared during Dirty War